Yes
Is success tied to having rich parents?
81–90 of 137 posts
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#82Early investors almost always require a friends and family round.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#83Yes, and the most insidious part is that the beneficiaries don't even realize it. Often they genuinely do have talent and work hard, and they didn't get a million dollars dropped on them with no strings attached, so they attribute 99% of their success to personal merit. The free housing and transportation, the extra formal and informal instruction, the contacts, the superior nutrition and health care, the freedom from distraction and psychological safety of working with a net - none of those things penetrate their consciousness at all because those weren't blatant easily-counted gifts. They don't realize others don't have those things (all their peers did) or how much that matters. "I still would have succeeded without those" even though it's not true. It's the nature of privilege to hide itself.
The correlation is not absolute, of course. There are poor kids who succeed - like me, though even with beginnings that were modest by most standards I was still far luckier than many. There are rich kids who fail. But the relationship is still far stronger than would be allowed in anything we could legitimately call a meritocracy.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#84Once you don't have to worry about not having to pay rent, not having to pay electricity etc then your appetite for risks grows. To get to that point you either need to start from a rich household (parents) or get to a certain age, have some money to support you (from previous work) and then go into entrepreneurial experiments. This is a big reason why you see older entrepreneurs embarking into that journey.
then your appetite for risks grows Sigh. No, it's not an appetite for risk. It's that those risks get less risky. People become more "risk tolerant" when those risks are less of a threat to them, their survival, their future, etc. That's a little like saying "Rich people eat at more expensive restaurants than poor people because they have the appetite for it." No, they don't. They have the same appetite as a poor per…
It depends what you are measuring as the risk. The risk of lowering your quality of life may decrease with wealth, but the risk of your business failing likely stays roughly the same. Thus, more appetite for risk.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
your appetite for risks grows Your need for success diminishes with wealth though. A lot of founders struggle to motivate themselves to push through the hard stuff, get over the pits of depression, and to drive themselves following mistakes and rejections if they have resources to fall back on. It's a lot easier to take a month off and book a nice vacation after you've been told "no" by an investor or a major custome…
No. A smart person can always get a well paying job and still be considered successful by his peers or family. The son of a wealthy family may think going to Google is the same as failure. He has the money to try over and over again and does so because working for someone else is like being a sheep.
You’re subtly implying that this smart person also has the resume to be allowed to be interviewed in the first place. (A common bias of thought by people working in tech, from my experience).
There are people out there whose problem is not that they aren’t smart, but that they don’t have the resume that is aligned with HR filters. Their two biggest and relatively substantial hurdles are: 1) not getting a chance for even a first interview because they are immediately being rejected purely based on their resume, and 2) having a weak position going into salary negotiations.
So, imho “a smart person can always get a well paying job” is a gross oversimplification often made by people who are not in such circumstances.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
then your appetite for risks grows Sigh. No, it's not an appetite for risk. It's that those risks get less risky. People become more "risk tolerant" when those risks are less of a threat to them, their survival, their future, etc. That's a little like saying "Rich people eat at more expensive restaurants than poor people because they have the appetite for it." No, they don't. They have the same appetite as a poor per…
It depends what you are measuring as the risk. The risk of lowering your quality of life may decrease with wealth, but the risk of your business failing likely stays roughly the same. Thus, more appetite for risk.
Yes, that's the implication.
E.g. Poor and rich alike are at risk of losing the capital they put into the business. For the rich that might be daddy's money, while for the poor that might be their life savings. Both are at risk of being unemployed and without healthcare. For the rich that might be fine, but for the poor that could be life-threatening.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#87I'd say the more important part is a baseline of stability. I went through two evictions by the time I was 19, and I ultimately had to estrange myself from my family to avoid getting evicted for a third time. I'm very happy with my current level of success. I've made 6 figures for a good amount of time and have more than enough saved to take a long vacation. I can't stress enough how important it is to cut out toxic…
> I'd say the more important part is a baseline of stability.
Hear, hear. I'm pretty sure I've seen studies that show the initial situation most likely to yield later success is the upper-middle class. Rich enough to have some resources and the stability you mention, but not so rich that "the pressure's off" and one is tempted to just rest on parents' laurels.
I think stability is also part of the argument for UBI (or similar). The burdens and instability associated with poverty are drags on the whole economy. Free people from those, and they're better able to contribute back to the economy as both producers and consumers. Unfortunately, too many people would rather limit their own prosperity as long as they can limit someone else's even more, either because they don't understand how the system works or due to a nasty quirk of human nature.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They don't want cockroach people in my estimation. This is true. It matters much more who you are than what you bring to the table (unless you're bringing in something spectacular).
Agree, and obviously my history and K1's can make the case for a whole slew of other traits besides that one. By "who you are" do you mean a persons intrinsic traits? I think the fact that "who you are" in these cases implicitly includes a persons network, access to capital and other _extrinsic_ traits should be spoken aloud and acknowledged. There are a lot of poor, smart kids who feel _less than_ as a result. A tra…
By who you are I meant whether you come from a rich and privileged family or not.
>I think the fact that "who you are" in these cases implicitly includes a persons network [...]
Yes, you're right, in some sense a person with a good pedigree is bringing these implicit connections to the table, and that has value, for sure. But then that leaves outside the other 90% of people who do not pass that litmus test.
And then, some bad patterns emerge, like this one pointed out by our beloved Michael O. Church: https://twitter.com/MichaelOChurch/status/149157622891411456...
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#89Why is this a surprise? It’s easier to be successful when you’re taught by successful people (your parents). Not to mention other aspects, but I think this one is important. It is common knowledge that people that just come into money are likely to blow it. If they are taught well by the parents, and then have money, they’re more likely to be successful.
There's an incredibly large cohort of people that discount or deny their privilege, to the point they laughably claim people can become successful if only they worked hard. They're so out of touch with reality that it helps to post reminders like this from time to time.
This.
Seconded.
Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
then your appetite for risks grows Sigh. No, it's not an appetite for risk. It's that those risks get less risky. People become more "risk tolerant" when those risks are less of a threat to them, their survival, their future, etc. That's a little like saying "Rich people eat at more expensive restaurants than poor people because they have the appetite for it." No, they don't. They have the same appetite as a poor per…
It depends what you are measuring as the risk. The risk of lowering your quality of life may decrease with wealth, but the risk of your business failing likely stays roughly the same. Thus, more appetite for risk.
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